scholarly journals Information literacy challenges for Chinese PhD students in Australia: A biographical study

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinghe Han

This study explored the information literacy (IL) development of international higher degree research (HDR) students from China as they undertook their research studies in an Australian university. International HDR students need advanced IL skills to complete their research degree. However, IL research and training in western countries has tended to regard international HDR students no differently from their undergraduate counterparts. That is, there has been a focus on basic information skills rather than considering the more complicated and advanced IL needs within a research context. The project presented in this paper aimed to explore this gap. Three international PhD students from China participated in this research. A biographical approach was used to collect the data, and a total of 222 reflective accounts were collected from the participants over a period of fifteen months. In these reflections, they recorded significant life and study experiences at the University of Western Sydney. This approach allowed the participants freedom to express their thoughts and feelings without interruption and enabled them to speak frankly and freely without prejudice. The approach to data analysis underpinning this study was based on Bruce’s (1997) relational model of IL. The findings indicate that these international HDR students experience significant difficulties in developing their IL skills during their research studies in their western university. The complex nature of research study, which demands high levels of IL, significantly contributes to these difficulties, as do the different language and culture of international students which pose additional challenges to their information use. This article concludes with recommendations for research supervisors and librarians to consider in the provision of IL education for international students.

TEM Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1435-1441
Author(s):  
Radna Andi Wibowo ◽  
Ming-Chang Wu

As international students, they need to adapt and learn new experiences in a foreign country quickly; this ability is instrumental in increasing their global awareness. This research is a quantitative study using descriptive statistical analysis and hypothesis testing using ANOVA. The ANOVA test is used to determine the effect of gender and college on global awareness which consists of Critical Thinking, Global Awareness, Information Literacy Self-efficacy, Communication and Teamwork. A student's characteristics are not only influenced by the classroom environment and the university environment but the person who is formed over the years before entering the new ecosystem.


Author(s):  
Zahra Hosseini ◽  
◽  
Sirkku Kotilainen

Recently many studies have remarked migration issues. Thus, in countries such as Finland, having a governmental strategy for increasing the number of migrants, especially educated immigrants or encouraging international students to stay, is highly important. While Finland is recognized as the happiest country, it would be arguable why it is not included in the list of top destination countries for immigration. The literature shows communication is one of the most issues for immigrants and international students, particularly those from Asian countries. Therefore, this study aims to understand how technology-based communication such as the use of social media influences international students' decision to immigrate. Respectively, 23 Iranian tertiary-level students were interviewed as the case of the study. Uses and Gratification theory was employed to investigate the role of media usage among the participants. The findings showed that although there is high desire among the participants to immigrate to Finland, the difficulty and unpopularity of the Finnish language and culture of distance in Finland reduces the motivation to emigrate and made the participants feel being the outsider in the university and society. The use of communication media has facilitated university admissions and communication with family, friends, compatriots and other international students, but has not been able to connect them to Finnish society. While educated immigrants in every country are human resources, the results of this study draw our attention to explore different aspects of communication, identifying motivating factors and reducing frustration among international students for immigration. These results emphasize on the development of strategies and tools for harnessing the potential of media and technology to connect international students as future educated immigrants in the host community.


Author(s):  
Guoying Liu ◽  
Zuochen Zhang ◽  
Clayton Smith ◽  
Shijing Xu ◽  
Karen Pillon ◽  
...  

The population of international students has increased significantly at the University of Windsor in recent years, and the university takes a variety of actions to address several key issues of interest to international students, including academic integrity, English language development, and writing support. This chapter reports findings from a multi-year collaborative project that was designed to enhance international students' library and academic literacy, with a focus on the understanding of plagiarism and measures to prevent it. A number of workshops that involved students at different levels were delivered to students from the English language improvement, undergraduate, and graduate programs. Research data collected from these workshops indicate that students benefited from the workshops, although at different degrees because of various factors, such as academic discipline, English language proficiency, previous educational experience. Further research can be conducted to explore ways to optimize such programs to meet the needs of students, particularly international students.


Author(s):  
Renée Morrissey ◽  
Lisa M. Given

This paper presents a pilot study that examined the experiences of Chinese graduate students in using the University of Alberta Libraries. The findings outline the challenges faced by students with respect to working in a second language and navigating library technologies, with a focus on the students’ information literacy skills.Cet article présente une étude pilote qui a examiné les expériences des étudiants chinois de 3e cycle qui utilisent les bibliothèques universitaires de l’Université d’Alberta. Les résultats mettent en relief les défis auxquels les étudiants sont confrontés lors de l’utilisation d’une langue seconde et des technologies offertes par les bibliothèques, et s’attardent sur les compétences en culture de l’information des étudiants. 


Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinashe Mugwisi

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the Internet have to a large extent influenced the way information is made available, published and accessed. More information is being produced too frequently and information users now require certain skills to sift through this multitude in order to identify what is appropriate for their purposes. Computer and information skills have become a necessity for all academic programmes. As libraries subscribe to databases and other peer-reviewed content (print and electronic), it is important that users are also made aware of such sources and their importance. The purpose of this study was to examine the teaching of information literacy (IL) in universities in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the role played by librarians in creating information literate graduates. This was done by examining whether such IL programmes were prioritised, their content and how frequently they were reviewed. An electronic questionnaire was distributed to 12 university libraries in Zimbabwe and 21 in South Africa. A total of 25 questionnaires were returned. The findings revealed that IL was being taught in universities library and non-library staff, was compulsory and contributed to the term mark in some institutions. The study also revealed that 44 per cent of the total respondents indicated that the libraries were collaborating with departments and faculty in implementing IL programmes in universities. The study recommends that IL should be an integral part of the university programmes in order to promote the use of databases and to guide students on ethical issues of information use.


Author(s):  
Eman Al-erqi ◽  
◽  
Mohd Lizam Mohd Diah ◽  
Najmaddin Abo Mosali ◽  
◽  
...  

This study seeks to address the impact of service quality affecting international student's satisfaction towards loyalty tothe Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia(UTHM). The aim of thestudy is to develop relationship between service quality factor and loyalty to the university from the international students’ perspectives. The study adopted quantitative approach where data was collected through questionnaire survey and analysed statistically. A total of 246 responses were received and found to be valid. The model was developed and analysed using AMOS-SEM software. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) function of the software was to assessed the measurement models and found that all the models achieved goodness of fit. Then path analysis function was used to assessed structural model and found that service qualityfactors have a significant effect on the students’ satisfaction and thus affecting the loyaltyto the university. Hopefully the outcome form this study will benefit the university in providing services especially to the international students.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCISCO CARLOS PALETTA

This work aims to presents partial results on the research project conducted at the Observatory of the Labor Market in Information and Documentation, School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo on Information Science and Digital Humanities. Discusses Digital Humanities and informational literacy. Highlights the evolution of the Web, the digital library and its connections with Digital Humanities. Reflects on the challenges of the Digital Humanities transdisciplinarity and its connections with the Information Science. This is an exploratory study, mainly due to the current and emergence of the theme and the incipient bibliography existing both in Brazil and abroad.Keywords: Digital Humanities; Information Science; Transcisciplinrity; Information Literacy; Web of Data; Digital Age.


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